Outside of arenas physical level is just as worthless. Sean was asking me if it was same outside of arena so I tested with him. I used my prepped wep on him and averaged 10-35ish dmg per hit on him with my most powerful gov weapon. One random critical dealt more but that was all. He tested his on me and our dmg output was basically the same except for the critical which was the only difference. Also I couldn't hit him at all with a non gov sword even with a -120 wc which is also absurd.
Seriously though. With -120 wc and a sword of gov+8 dealing +137 extra dmg and I deal an average of 10-40ish dmg per hit not counting criticals outside of the arena when my stats say my max damage is 265? Not even close.
Spell casters already have a huge advantage in combat on the overworld due to it being so bumpy. Their spells automatically target you whereas melee you have to aim for them each time. With the bumpy terrain its pretty difficult, they just have to run away and buy enough time to cast. With the current amount of dmg I put out even with maxed physical ill be lucky if i can get in 4 or 5 hits before they kill me from spamming bolts at me.